Dambusters Experience Comes To RAF Museum

See and feel like you're inside a real Lancaster bomber.

VR Education releasing a new virtual reality (VR) experience this month based on the Dambusters called Raid on the Ruhr. Now for WWII history buffs, the RAF Museum London has announced it’ll be hosting its own Dambusters VR Experience.

Developed by creative agency All Seeing Eye in collaboration with the Imperial War Museum and supported by Digital Catapult and Arts Council England as a part of CreativeXR. The original prototype was called Immersive Histories: Dam Busters, based around the Dambusters first raid of 1943.

An authentic, interactive recreation of the Dambusters first mission on 16th May attacking the Möhne dam, the experience surrounds the audience with a physical set, able to feel the window, fuselage and desk in conjunction with VR visuals, spatialised audio and haptic feedback to completely transport audiences to the skies above Germany aboard an Avro Lancaster bomber. The haptic feedback comes from Subpac vest fitted into an authentic ‘Mae West’ life preserver, enabling guests to feel the roar of the Lancaster’s engines and booms from the German flak.

With a total runtime of 10 minutes, to help create the experience All Seeing Eye had input from No. 617 Squadron’s official historian, Robert Owen.

The Dambusters VR Experience is due to officially launch soon at the RAF Museum London, located in the Dambusters area in Hangar 5. Grouped together, Hangers 3,4 and 5 feature a rich history of war in the air, with the Supermarine Spitfire Mk 1A, Hawker Hurricane Mk 1, Messerschmitt Bf109E-4/B ‘Emil’, and Fiat CR42 Falco (Falcon) all on display.

Don’t forget there’s always 1943 Berlin Blitzby the BBC and VR Education which arrived last year for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. This VR experience also puts you in a Lancaster bomber, heading out on a deadly bombing run over the capital city